The Pakistan bowlers emerged on top in the first face-off against India as the visitors easily beat the hosts by 5 wickets today.
India suffered a sensational batting collapse allowing Pakistan to coast to a comfotable 5-wicket win in the first Twenty20 Internationalu00a0at Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
The match was not without tension and drama going by Ishant Sharma and Kamran Akmal’s spat which only ended when the pacer’s teammates and the umpire calmed things down at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It could well cause Sri Lankan match referee Roshan Mahanama to penalise the two hot- heads.
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India lost their second Twenty20 game on the trot after Saturday’s loss to England.
Pakistan’s five-wicket victory was made possible by veteran and former captain Shoaib Malik, who stayed unbeaten on 57 ( 50 balls, 3x3, 3x6). Indian tennis star Sania Mirza’s husband put on 106 runs for the fourth wicket with his captain Mohammad Hafeez ( 61 off 44 balls).
Debutant pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a memorable spell and ended up with impressive figures of three for nine runs. He got rid of opener Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad and the dangerous Umar Akmal.
Off the fourth ball in the final over Shoaib clouted Ravindra Jadeja for a six to seal the issue.
Earlier, put into bat, India managed a modest 133 for nine against Pakistan.
Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar, who retired from ODIs on Sunday paving the way for the youngsters, is the highest runs getter for India against Pakistan.
India has played Pakistan three times in T20, won twice, tied once and lost none for a success rate of 83.33%.
Indian batsmen fell like nine pins as Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal managed to restrict the hosts to a paltry 133 for nine.
Umar Gul and Shoaib Malik were the chief ararchitects of Pakistan's win. File Pic/AFP
Indian openers Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir made a solid start putting on 77 for the first wicket but everything went haywire from then on as they lost nine wickets for an addition of 47 runs.
Such was the plight of Indian batting that save Gambhir who scored 43 and Rahane who smashed 42 off 31 balls, all the other frontline batsmen failed miserably. Only Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina managed double-figure scores with contributions of 10 runs each.
While Pakistan bowlers led by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal did a splendid job in the back 10, the Indian batsmen showed lack of application and their running between the wickets was also pretty poor.
Umar Gul was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers grabbing three for 21 after conceding 13 in his first over while Ajmal chipped in with two for 25 keeping things under check during middle overs.
However, India had started on a positive note with Rahane taking on tallest international cricketer Mohammed Irfan (7 feet 1 inch) and Sohail Tanveer with consummate ease. Gambhir was a bit scratchy at the other end as he found it difficult to get going.
The shot of the Indian innings was Rahane’s six over extra cover off Ajmal’s delivery. After settling down, Gambhir also hit Gul for a six over mid-wicket.
It was Shahid Afridi who gave Pakistan the first breakthrough when Rahane tried to repeat the lofted shot over extra cover only to be holed out by Umar Akmal at long-on.
Brief Scores:
India: 133 for nine in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 43, Ajinkya Rahane 42; Umar Gul 3/21, Saeed Ajmal 2/25).
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